Which factors influence the prevalence of institution-acquired falls? Results from an international, multi-center, cross-sectional survey.
Manuela Hoedl, Doris Eglseer, Niklaus Bernet and 8 others
PMID 34919335WHAT IT FOUND
Across five countries, 3.9% of hospital patients and 11.9% of nursing home residents had fallen in the institution in the last 30 days.
A fall in the previous year was strongly linked to a recent fall.
Key findings
01Institution-acquired falls in the previous 30 days were reported by 3.9% of hospital patients and 11.9% of nursing home residents.
02A fall in the previous 12 months was associated with higher reported odds of a recent institution-acquired fall: odds ratio 2.814 in hospitals and 26.026 in nursing homes.
03Institution-acquired fall prevalence differed by country: hospitals ranged from 2.8% to 7.7%, and nursing homes from 6.0% to 15.8%.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
This was a cross-sectional survey, so it cannot show that any risk factor caused a fall. Participation was voluntary except for Swiss acute-care hospitals, so the sample may not represent all institutions. No hospital patients in the UK were included, so the hospital picture is incomplete. The prevalence analysis used 12,805 nursing home residents, while 23,958 nursing home residents were reported as participating. The risk-factor models used 32,761 hospital patients and 11,868 nursing home residents. Unknown fall answers were treated as missing data. Possible contributors such as environment, staffing and skill mix were not included.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The paper is tagged as non-U.S. government research support, but no specific funder role is stated.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that asking about a previous fall prevents falls. This was a cross-sectional survey, so it shows an association, not that the question or any intervention caused fewer falls.